William Broe

William Broe ( spook)
Born	24 August 1913  Amesbury,  Massachusetts,  USA
Died	28 September 2010 (Age 97)
Nationality	US
Alma mater	Bowdoin College
Member of	Association of Former Intelligence Officers/1996 members A-H
CIA spook who led repeated illegal clandestine operations in East Asia and Latin America, including the destabilization of the government of Salvador Allende.  CIA/Inspector General  In office 1972 - 1973  CIA/Latin American Division/Chief In office 1965 - 1972 Succeeded by Theodore Shackley  CIA/East Asia Division/Tokyo Station/Chief In office 1961 - 1965  CIA/East Asia Division/Manila Station/Chief In office 1951 - 1953

William Vincent Broe was a US spook who led operations in East Asia and Latin America.

Education

Broe was born on August 24, 1913, in Amesbury, Massachusetts. He attended Amesbury High School and Governor Dummer Academy and graduated from Bowdoin College in 1939 with an A.B. degree in Biology and Chemistry.

Career

He worked as a Special Agent with the FBI from 1942 to 1948.

Broe entered the CIA just months after its creation, working in the Far East Division.

In 1951, he was assigned to Manila as Chief of Station, including supporting the Philippine National Intelligence Coordinating Agency, receiving a commendation from the Philippine president when leaving in 1953.

From Manila, Broe went on to become Deputy Chief of the China Mission, based in Japan. Broe was then assigned as Chief of the China Branch in Washington, before becoming Deputy Chief of the Far East Division in 1958. This was followed by tours of duty as Chief of Station, Tokyo 1961-1965; Chief of the Western Hemisphere Division (1965-1972); and, finally, as Inspector General of the CIA (1972-1973).

As Chief of the Western Hemisphere Division, and under his control it undertook repeated illegal clandestine operations within South America: The 1965 Dominican Crisis; political instability in Peru and Chile; successive coups in Bolivia; the growing urban guerillas in many of the countries; and the increasing Soviet presence and activity in Latin America.

He oversaw the mission to destabilize the government of Salvador Allende. In March 1973, Broe made headlines after his unprecedented appearance before Senate investigators looking into CIA activities in South America (Senate Subcommittee on Multinational Corporations). Specifically, the investigators were interested in the agency's collaboration with International Telephone and Telegraph (ITT) to interfere in Chilean political affairs. ITT had worked actively against Allende's election in 1970, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to fund political opposition. Once Allende was in power, the conglomerate feared its business interests in Chile would be nationalized. In his testimony, Mr. Broe said that he had met several times with ITT chief executive Harold Geneen and senior vice president Edward Gerrity under direct orders from Central Intelligence Director Richard Helms. Broe, Geneen, and Gerrity discussed employing a coordinated plan between the telecommunications conglomerate and the spy agency to create fiscal instability in Chile.

As Inspector General, he was closely involved with the preparation and review of documents and other material concerning the CIAs involvement in the Watergate affair, and in regard to this issue Broe continued as a consultant to the Director of Central Intelligence for a year after his retirement in 1973.

Broe was considered a valuable advisor and consultant to top US government policymakers as well as colleagues of foreign governments.

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